Q: How did the series feel from your perspective?
APA: I think, at least in Game 1 (Game 2 was pretty rough), a lot of the plays just came down to execution. A lot of the times, we would start the plays off really well, and then someone would make a mistake.
A couple that come to mind are like me and Core would pick Crisp off before the fight, but then one of our frontlines would get sucked too far in, where we couldn’t hit. Honestly, Game 1 was fine. Just came down to execution, and stuff like that we can easily improve on. Game 2 we just got shit on. I got solokilled at Level 4 or whatever it was. […]
Yeah, he’s actually kind of cracked at Sylas. And then I tried to help UmTi defend jungle camps and we got smashed in the jungle 2v2. They had a very snowball-y, frontloaded team comp. They got ahead early off of good laning and good jungle invades, and the game was just hard.
Bot was losing, hard bot matchup. I was losing mid. Impact was actually winning top, so maybe that was the bright spot. Game 1 honestly wasn’t too bad. I think we can easily win Game 1. Game 2, we just have to play better.
The series overall was fine, and I said it jokingly as they were destroying our nexus, but I was like “Guys, at least we’re not KCorp.”
Q: Are you concerned about the CFO matchup?
APA: Yeah, of course. I mean, we 2-1’d KC and they 2-0’d KC. We definitely can’t disrespect them, you know? We’re definitely focusing on them first, doing our best to win that series, and then focusing on the HLE match.
Q: Can you talk about how it feels being in LoL Park?
APA: I’ve never played in a ring stadium. There’s people on all sides of you. I’ve never had it that there’s cheering from behind me. And the sound setup [that you can change yourself] is really cool.
Q: When you played at the PC Bang here years ago, did you think you could be here one day?
APA: I don’t think the thought even crossed my mind, to be honest.
Q: Zeka and 369 said you were the western player to watch at the tournament, what do you think of that?
APA: I think I’m known to just have a lot of joker picks in the draft, so that’s probably why they’re watching me. Less so because they think I’m the best player. I mean, maybe they think I’m the best player, I don’t want to speak for them. But I think moreso it’s just the joker picks I have.
Q: Okay, what’s going on with the mustache? Does it help you intimidate, like when you got close to Vladi or Quid?
APA: But that’s not even because of the mustache — I mean, I could do that with a beard or bald. I think the mustache looks funny, for someone my age. It definitely makes me not look 23.
At least for the mustache, I don’t particularly care either which way. I’m not particularly attached to my hair. I was actually thinking about going bald or buzz cut again after this tournament.
Q: Bald with a mustache? Like the Pringles guy?
APA: Maybe, I could look like Kangas. The player version of Kangas. It’s literally just on vibes. Sometimes you want to shave your hair, sometimes you want to shave your beard. Just a vibes check.
Q: Looking forward to the CFO match, what do you think about HongQ?
APA: I’ve watched a fair amount of their games, and then of course I watched their games today because we were just waiting for them to finish. Honestly, he’s just a super rookie. We were looking at his GOL, and he’s only played like 30 games all time in the professional scene, so he’s just a super rookie. And honestly, he played really well today. He kind of shit on Vladi both games.
Q: Will the joker picks be your strategy to take advantage of that?
APA: That is the case, but I also still have 2 days to prep against them. We haven’t really prepped htem yet. I did a little prep on all the teams in this tournament, but we don’t play tomorrow so we’ll prep. Not too much prep right now. I know what some of their players do, but no [gameplan] right now.
Q: Do you have a message to EU fans who feel like they’re the fifth best region right now?
APA: It’s true. You guys are the fifth best region in the world. Sucks to suck.
Q: Now that condition is improved, how are you feeling about the format, and if Fearless could continue throughout the year?
APA: We were only in bad condition because of jet lag and everything. We landed and we had like 12 hours [to get started]. We had a small opportunity to come earlier, like UmTi came to Korea straight from Brazil.
But the schedule was pretty tight, we only got like 5 days here. Condition now is pretty good. Core said it today, that this was the first night he’s gotten really good sleep and he was feeling good about today.
As for Fearless, I don’t know how NA would do Fearless. If it were to be Fearless for the [rest of the year], it’ll be cool. I thought that this split playing Fearless let me bring out a lot of joker picks later in draft. I’m looking forward to making top 4 still and going game 4, game 5 in draft and seeing what funny things come out.